Christmas comes early: SQL Developer Data Modeler now free(r)!

The week that encompasses Oracle OpenWorld is a bit like a holiday season for ORACLENERDs: new toys (product announcements, long awaited product updates, exhibitor tchotchkes), mingling with far-flung "family" and friends, and of course unhealthy amounts of food and drink that will take months of exercise to counterbalance.

That's kind of a big deal. The Data Modeler add-on for Oracle SQL Developer is a great tool, but the licensing fee for the full product -- there's always been a free read-only version -- has been cited by some as pretty steep. No longer! The OTN content related to Data Modeler is still being revised, but it no longer appears on the Oracle price list (PDF warning on that link), and Kris Rice graciously followed up with a clarifying tweet expanding on Justin's "...free for Oracle Database customers":

So there you go. If you have licenses for Oracle RDBMS software, then SQL Developer Data Modeler is all yours. There's a risk that this news might get lost in the flood of other stuff that's coming out of OpenWorld this week, since tweets from the Ace Directors briefing can best be summarized as "OMG U GUYS 2 BAD WE'RE UNDER NDA TIL SUNDAY WOW!!1!one!" If you or your team have need of a data modeling tool, but have been put off by the pricing of some of the big players (I know I have, given how infrequently I need to use one), this is definitely worth a look, and Oracle just removed your last excuse to give it a try.